Andretti Green drivers Marco Andretti,left, and Danica Patrick,right, talks about how they could not find enough speed at the end of Pole Day at the Saturday afternoon Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Matt Kryger / The Indianapolis Star) Matt Kryger, Indianapolis Star

IRL driver Danica Patrick took in the Colts game from the endzone in the first quarter during the game at the RCA Dome against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, December 30, 2007. (Matt Detrich / The Indianapolis Star) Matt Detrich, Indianapolis Star

Danica Patrick takes part in the bowling event. The Jeff Gordon "Hats Off to Hope" Bowling Event is an annual pre-Brickyard 400 event, which benefits the Jeff Gordon Children's Foundation and Riley Hospital. The event took place Thursday July 25, 2013 at Western Bowl in Indianapolis. Rob Goebel/The Star.

NASCAR driver Danica Patrick talks about various aspects of her personal and professional career during an interview at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 24, 2013 as the Brickyard 400 takes place on Sunday, July 28, 2013. Matt Detrich / The Star

Danica Patrick's car puts out a trail of smoke after mechanical problems leaving the pits at the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, IN on Sunday, July 27 2014. Sam Riche / For The Star

Ed Carpenter Racing IndyCar driver Danica Patrick (13) following her run on qualification day for the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 19, 2018. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Ed Carpenter Racing IndyCar driver Danica Patrick (13) following her run on qualification day for the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 19, 2018. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Danica Patrick will retire from racing after running in the 102nd Indianapolis 500 in May.
Kristin Enzor/For the IndyStar
Danica Patrick walks along the bricks to her car for the start of the Brickyard 400, Sunday, July 24, 2016. Kristin Enzor/For the IndyStar

Expect Danica Patrick to boost attention when she races in her final IndIanapolis 500.
Matt Kryger/IndyStar
Sprint Cup Series driver Danica Patrick (10) talks about her new design painted by Troy Lee Designs and her old IndyCar helmet on there right, Saturday, July 23, 2016, afternoon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Matt Kryger/IndyStar, Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Patrick, who has six top-10 finishes at Indy, and fellow driver Dan Carpenter chat in pit lane during testing. Patrick will be back on the track today as part of the manufacturer test day.
IndyCar drivers Danica Patrick and Dan Carpenter chat in pit lane during testing for the Indy 500 at theIndianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. MichellePemberton/IndyStar

Danica Patrick was the first woman to lead a lap during the Indianapolis 500. Patrick will be driving in her last race Sunday.
Kerry Keating/ IndyStar
Ed Carpenter Racing IndyCar driver Danica Patrick (13) on qualification day for the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 19, 2018. Kerry Keating, Kerry Keating, Kerry Keating/for IndyStar

Fans crowd around Danica Patrick, seeking autographs. Sunday?s Indianapolis 500 will be her final race, at the same track where her viral fame began.
Kerry Keating/For IndyStar
Fans crowd in upon Danica Patrick for signatures. Kerry Keating, Kerry Keating/For IndyStar

For a minute, can we set aside our Danica Patrick feelings, whatever they may be, and consider what it?s like to be her, Gregg Doyel asks.
IndyStar 2005 file photo
5/30/05 INDY30 #113514 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Photo by Matt Detrich / The Star::: Indy car driver Danica Patrick feels the exhaustion as she takes her gear off before being interviewed on the track after she finished fourth in Sunday's Indianapolis 500. Matt Detrich, Matt Detrich, Indianapolis Star

Danica Patrick
Danica Patrick is interviewed about her fourth place finish in her first Indianapolis 500, in 2005. She became the first woman to take the lead in the race. She would go on to finish third in the 2009 Indy 500. Matt Detrich, Matt Detrich/IndyStar

Shauna Fenderson, 12, Noblesville, climbs into a GoDaddy IndyCar to see how it fits. The car was on display at the car show that was part of the festival. The town of Westfield celebrated the holiday weekend with their annual Westfield Rocks the 4th Festival Sunday, July 3, 2011, at Asa Bales Park. / Doug McSchooler/for The Star Doug McSchooler

NASCAR driver Danica Patrick talks about various aspects of her personal and professional career during an interview at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 24, 2013 as the Brickyard 400 takes place on Sunday, July 28, 2013. Matt Detrich / The Star

Danica patrick waves to the crowd as she is driven around the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during driver introductions before the 22nd running of the Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard on Sunday, July 26, 2015. Patrick started 15th and finished 27th. Charlie Nye / The Star, Charlie Nye / The Star

NASCAR race driver Danica Patrick helps to kick-off National Breast Cancer Awareness Month Tuesday, October 1, 2013 in New York, New York, with the Chevrolet Camaro SS pink pace car and her GoDaddy #10 Chevy race car which has been painted PINK for October. GoDaddy and the Public Interest Registry have made a $50,000 donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and Chevrolet has raised $2.2 million since 2011 for its Making Strides Against Breast Cancer efforts. (Chevy Racing News Photo) Chevrolet Racing

Danica Patrick smiles at her nieces Reese, left, and Jordan Selman in pit lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday. For more on her return, see Page 1C.
MichellePemberton/IndyStar
IndyCar driver Danica Patrick smiles at her nieces Reese, left, and Jordan Selman in pit lane during veteran refresher testing for the Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. MichellePemberton/IndyStar

Driver Danica Patrick waits to get back to the track as her crew work on the car during Nationwide practice on Thursday, July 26, 2012 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Matt Detrich / The Star) Matt Detrich, Indianapolis Star

Story Highlights

INDIANAPOLIS — If Danica Patrick were armed with the power to rewrite history, there might be a couple of days she'd like to go back and edit. Perhaps the auto racing trailblazer would touch up the ending of the 2009 Indianapolis 500 so that she crossed the finish line ahead of Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon rather than just behind them.

Or maybe she’d go back to tinker with her show-stealing 500 debut in 2005 — the one where she became the first woman to lead laps in the historic race — and add a little more fuel to her tank so that she could make a run at Wheldon instead of having to settle for fourth.

Then again, maybe she'd leave those memorable moments alone. But if there's one part of her storied racing career that she’d seriously consider rewriting, it's those years in NASCAR, where, she confessed Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, she had become largely irrelevant.

“As time wore on, I missed that relevancy of being in the game and being someone who before the race, people are (asking), ‘Who do you think is going to win today?’ My name did not pop up in NASCAR, you know,” Patrick said between stints during Wednesday’s Indianapolis 500 manufacturers test. “Other than that first Daytona 500 when I was on the pole, most of the other races weren’t like that. So I missed that — I missed being relevant.”

So far, relevancy hasn’t been an issue for her at IMS. Patrick's preparations for the final 500 miles of her racing career are among the most-well documented storylines to color the beginning of May. When she’s not on track in her No. 13 GoDaddy Chevrolet, Patrick can usually be found surrounded by a mob of media members. Wednesday was no different, as a large crowd gathered around her Ed Carpenter Racing garage to see how Patrick was feeling after a challenging first day behind the wheel.

“(Yesterday) was absolutely horrible,” Patrick said with a smile as she somewhat facetiously recalled the pains of re-familiarizing herself with an Indy car after seven years away. “I felt very uncomfortable. … But the first couple laps (Wednesday) I got flat out, so much different than it was yesterday.

Patrick said that the steering issues that troubled her Tuesday had mostly been remedied and that she's slowly but surely growing re-accustomed to the nuances of an Indy car. The goal now is to continue that process and come Pole Day and race weekend, give fans and pundits alike reason to say her name when asking one another, “Who’s coming out on top on May 27?”

Patrick thinks that's possible, and so does her team team owner. Ed Carpenter has said repeatedly since news broke that she'd be joining his team that this is not a farewell tour for her and not a publicity stunt for ECR. They teamed up with one goal in mind: winning.

"In Indy cars, she's always been efficient with managing the car and producing results," Carpenter said of his driver who has six top-10 finishes at Indy in seven starts. "I'm excited to get this month kicked off, and I think she's going to bring real value to the team."